{"id":318751,"date":"2017-07-24T20:56:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T19:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/bbc-brexit-bias-claims-trade-secretary-liam-fox-accused-of-intimidation\/"},"modified":"2017-07-24T20:56:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T19:56:51","slug":"bbc-brexit-bias-claims-trade-secretary-liam-fox-accused-of-intimidation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/bbc-brexit-bias-claims-trade-secretary-liam-fox-accused-of-intimidation\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Brexit bias claims &#8211; Trade Secretary Liam Fox accused of intimidation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 24 Jul, 2017 14:43 <\/time><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Edited time: 24 Jul, 2017 14:55 <\/time><\/p>\n<p>        Tory MP Liam Fox has been labeled a \u201ctin-pot dictator\u201d after he accused the BBC of consistently running negative stories about the economic effects of Brexit.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>In a letter to the BBC\u2019s director general, Tony Hall, the international trade secretary accused the BBC of biased and unbalanced reporting of Brexit and asked for a face-to-face meeting about its coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Fox wrote he <em>\u201ccould not recall a single time in recent times when I have seen good economic news that the BBC did not describe as \u2018despite Brexit\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fox, a vocal Brexit supporter, added that there is a <em>\u201cclear pattern of unbalanced reporting of the EU economy\u201d<\/em> by the BBC.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P7a6IRRDgvg?showinfo=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He accused the corporation of ignoring annual foreign direct investment figures released by the Department for International Trade, despite receiving the data, and said it had declined to interview him about a recent trade visit to Paris.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI understand the BBC cannot cover every story and I appreciate too that, despite its best efforts, the corporation cannot always guarantee total impartiality.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/391141-bbc-presenter-admits-bias\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.06\/thumbnail\/5936cf7fc4618870408b45f4.jpg\" alt=\"Evan Davis \u00a9 bbc.co.uk\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cHowever, I believe that we are now seeing a clear pattern of unbalanced reporting of the UK economy and, when it comes to the work of my department, evidence of the corporation wilfully ignoring positive economic data when we publish it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Liberal Democrats have accused Fox of behaving like a <em>\u201ctin-pot dictator\u201d<\/em> and attempting to intimidate the broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis is a blatant attempt at intimidating the BBC and undermining the independence of our media. The BBC shouldn\u2019t be bullied into publishing government propaganda and has rightly stood its ground,\u201d<\/em> said Alistair Carmichael, the party\u2019s chief whip, according to the Independent.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cLiam Fox is acting like a tinpot dictator. He can\u2019t blame the media for his inability to deliver on all the trade deals promised by the Brexiteers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The BBC dismissed the claim, saying to the Guardian: \u201cNo organization takes coverage of the economy more seriously.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe do not recognize the characterization of our coverage outlined in the letter, but the BBC is always happy to talk with politicians as we do on a regular basis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is not the first time Fox has damned the media for its Brexit coverage. Earlier this month he told the House of Commons <em>\u201cit does feel like some elements of our media would rather see Britain fail than see Britain succeed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fox\u2019s comments came after similar accusations were levied by the Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, who suggested on BBC Newsnight earlier this month that it \u201c<em>would be helpful if broadcasters were willing to be a bit patriotic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/397342-liam-fox-brexit-bbc\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 24 Jul, 2017 14:43 Edited time: 24 Jul, 2017 14:55 Tory MP Liam Fox has been labeled a \u201ctin-pot dictator\u201d after he accused the BBC of consistently running negative stories about the economic effects of Brexit. In a letter to the BBC\u2019s director general, Tony Hall, the international trade secretary accused the BBC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}